Sign up for our free weekly e-newsletter

I'm not too impressed with what I hear and see from new AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson. First off, he places all his bets on a rebranding campaign to make Cingular go away and AT&T louder. This on the eve of introducing a potentially huge product, the iPhone. I don't know what the iPhone does yet. But I do know AT&T is not a draw for me. I would be a little more information and customer-centric in the approach to the iPhone. Customer experience and then word-of-mouth will drive sales. Second, here's a scary quote from Stephenson: "We're going to control the video on our network. The content guys will have to make a deal with us." That's not a very democratic appraoch to technology and certainly not customer-centric. The Internet is about customer access. Rattling the corporate saber this early in the tenure shows me that Stephenson needs to go meet some of the people that will make or break his brand: His customers.